The Dating Dilemma
by Hazel Sage
Summary: One-shot. Percabeth. Annabeth discusses why she'd rather not date anyone with her mortal friend, Celia, but a certain demigod may give away the secret she's been edging around in her cryptic talk.


Celia's POV

Annabeth and I were just hanging out at her house. I'd managed to convince her to let me do her hair, though she'd fought against me at first. So I was brushing it out so I could French braid it for her. The few times I'd managed to do that for her, she'd looked gorgeous.

"So, how cute was Richard today?" I asked her, wiggling my eyebrows as I thought of the attractive soccer star.

She shrugged. "Sure, whatever you say."

I nudged her shoulder. "Come on, you have to think he's cute."

Another shrug… "Yeah, I guess so. Just not really my type."

"Who's your type?" I asked conspiratorially with a grin. "Connor? Jack? Derek? Jason? Michael? Ryan? Drake?" I just named as many guys that I could think of.

She blushed slightly but didn't answer right away. "I don't know if I really have a type. I'm not interested in any of those guys though."

"Then who _are_ you interested in, girl? You're _fifteen_; there's got to be _somebody_ you want to date!" I exclaimed, leaning around her shoulder to watch her expression carefully.

She faltered slightly. "I don't know. I guess there might be this kid from camp, but I'm not sure. He drives me crazy and we fight about as much as we talk civilly."

I raised my eyebrows, having a pretty good idea of who she was talking about but wisely choosing not to comment about that. "Annabeth, he's from camp. You only see him in the summer and he probably lives far away. I'm talking about people from around _here_."

She looked down. "I can't date people from around here."

My eyebrows wrinkled and I pursed my lips in confusion. "And why not? There are plenty of eligible and quite attractive boys at school."

"It's hard to explain."

"I'm all ears, girl." I scooted in front of her to look her in the eye.

"I'm…" She paused and bit her lip, looking sad. "I'm not normal."

"Of course you're not! You're Annabeth Chase! You're smart, pretty, and talented. There's nothing average about you," I told her earnestly.

Annabeth just shook her head, still looking sad. My pep talk hadn't worked at all. "No, Celia. I mean it. I'm _really_ not normal. More than you'd think."

"Explain."

"My life is… much different than everyone thinks it is. I'm not just some girl with a father, stepmother, stepbrothers, friends at home, and a nice summer camp. Everything's a lot more complicated." She sighed.

"Keep going," I urged.

She gave me a look, but kept going. "My mom is way different than anyone would expect."

"I thought your mom passed away right after you were born." I voiced my confusion.

She shook her head.

"Just a nasty divorce?" I asked.

She once again shook her head. "No. I was born out of wedlock. It was impossible for them to get married. But I take after my mom a lot. I've met her."

"And why did you let everyone think she was dead?" I asked with a bit of anger. How could she keep this from me?

"_I _never said she was dead. You guys just assumed that and I never corrected you. She very well could have just been divorced." Annabeth said matter-of-factly.

"Well, every time you mentioned your mom, you got this sad, faraway look in your eyes. None of us wanted to bring up painful memories." I told her.

She shrugged. "Anyway, my mom is pretty different and she passes it on to me. I get my intelligence from her and I think that I have an unnatural interest in the battle plans of any war because of her."

"So you think you're too much of a nerd?" I asked bluntly.

She shook her head vehemently. "Of course not; I'm proud of my intelligence and I know that at least someone would be interested. It's not the intelligence; it's the intricacy of my life."

"You still haven't explained that."

"It's like I lead two different lives. I'm much different at camp than I am when I'm here. People at camp know me as a loud-mouthed, know-it-all leader who you don't want to get on the bad side of because I'll kick their butts without breaking a sweat. Here, I'm the smart girl who will get in your face if I know I'm right, but in general, I stay quiet and out of the way. I try not to bother people so that they don't bother me. At camp, I don't care who I end up picking a fight with, as long as it's not an entire cabin." She shrugged.

I gave her a weird look. Was she really that intense at camp?

She just kept going. "Camp isn't what people think either. We don't do silly activities like most camps all the time. It's practically training for war, but ancient war."

"What?" I asked her in surprise.

"We learn how to fight at camp," she said casually.

"How?"

"We have a… very old, very skilled activities director who teaches the main counselors of each cabin and we teach our fellow cabinmates how to do whatever activity. If no one does well in a particular art, there are counselors from the skilled cabins to help everyone. Like, I'm one of the sword-fighting counselors."

"You fight with a sword?" I asked in astonishment.

"I can fight with almost anything sharp that you give me." She said matter-of-factly. "I do well with daggers."

I stared at her with wide eyes.

She sighed and reached for her waistband. A moment later, she produced a bronze dagger and laid it on the bed in front of her. I fought my reflex to bounce backwards away from it.

"I've trained with that blade at camp since I was seven." She said quietly, gazing at me carefully.

"The camp _trains_ you to do this?" I asked.

She nodded. "I know archery and I can fight with swords, daggers, spears, or almost any other old weapon. We also learn to use the discus and we know how to chariot race. We horseback ride and climb rock walls. We have arts and crafts, but normally people forge weapons or the like. We do canoeing and hiking. And we have Capture the Flag on Friday nights where we can use all of the weapons we have. I normally lead my team against the others."

"What kind of camp _is_ this? You could all get killed!" I exclaimed.

She shook her head. "There's a lot of precaution. Besides, I'm an excellent fighter now and I won't get as hurt in the outside world if I get attacked."

"Why would you get attacked?"

"Because I'm different." She looked down. When she gazed back up, there were practically tears in her eyes and she looked at me imploringly. "Please, Celia, you've got to understand, my life is not what anyone expects. It's dangerous and it's hard. I haven't felt security in my life since I can't remember when. I ran away when I was seven and managed to find a band of kids to run across a few states into camp. We're all different. My life is hectic and there's always a chance that something will go wrong. I can't bring a boyfriend into all of this. I'd have so many secrets from him and there'd be no way we could ever have an open relationship. There's a lot about me that only my camp friends know. But then again, they don't know much about my life at home."

"You've been keeping secrets from me?" I asked sadly, hurt.

She bit her lip and hugged me. "I'm sorry, Celia. I can't help it. I've been trained since I was little to hide this part of me and to be ashamed of it. Now that I'm proud of it, I still have to hide it because people will think I'm crazy."

"Crazy?" I asked as I pulled away. "It's that bad? Come on Annabeth, I won't think you're crazy. Just tell me!"

She hesitated. "I can't flat out tell you, but I can show you some stuff."

I nodded eagerly. I never knew that Annabeth had been hiding a lot; now I was excited to see what was so different.

"Give me your hand," she said. I did as she said.

Quick as a flash – so quick that I couldn't even cry out – she picked of the dagger and slashed it across my hand.

I stared in amazement at my unmarred hand. As I looked back at her, she held out her own hand and carefully pricked a fingertip. Blood immediately showed up as she stuck the wounded digit in her mouth.

"How didn't it hurt me?" I asked in astonishment.

"It's not meant to hurt people like you," she replied. "It's meant to hurt people like me and those on the other side of my life." She sheathed the dagger and pulled out a Yankees cap that I always saw with her but I'd never seen her wear.

"There's a reason I don't wear this," she said as if she was reading my mind. She carefully grabbed the cap and placed it on her head. She literally disappeared.

I gasped and scrambled backwards off of the bed, looking around. She appeared a moment later where she'd been before, her expression apologetic.

"I didn't mean to scare you so much," she said. "It was a gift from my mother." She gestured to the cap.

"Who _is_ your mom?"

"That would give away too much." After pausing a moment, she got up and grabbed a binder that was hidden among her many books. Gesturing for me to sit next to her on the bed, she flipped open the book and showed me what was inside.

The first page was a diagram of a few buildings with Greek lettering all around it. The next pages were filled with Greek letters and illustrations of what looked like Greek monsters.

"I wrote all of this," she admitted. "I understand Greek better than I understand English and they help teach it at camp. These buildings are things I want to build one day. The monster pictures are the old Greek monsters and notes about them. And the pages with just words are battle plans."

"Battle plans?" I asked skeptically.

"For Capture the Flag and stuff. Look," she pointed to some of the lettering. "It says, 'Attack Plan Macedonia – one person attacks the enemy from the front and keeps their attention while the two others flank both sides of the enemy and attack.' We have a bunch of different plans."

"You're not kidding me?"

She shook her head. "Of course not. The scary thing is that we actually use these plans. The kids at camp know how to successfully use them. We know how to fight and some kids are vicious. During Capture the Flag, some kids get really hurt. Percy almost got killed his first fight. Clarisse, one of the leaders of a vicious cabin, wanted payback because he'd humiliated her. So she ganged up a few of her thugs and attacked him. He was only twelve. But he held them off and we won that game. He was really hurt though. I've seen kids killed before. It's scary. I couldn't bring someone who wasn't raised this way into it. If I date anybody, it'll have to be someone from camp unless I really like and trust them."

I'd almost forgotten the topic of the conversation that had brought this confession on and started slightly when she brought in the whole dating part.

"Why do you even go to this camp? Please give me a straight-forward answer." I pleaded.

Annabeth hesitated. "It's just because of who I am. More like, who my mother is. I have half-siblings at camp – all my mother's children. It sounds a lot more scandalous than it is… Actually, it is pretty scandalous, but it's basically expected."

"I have no clue what you mean."

"It's just complicated," she said sadly, looking down. Suddenly, there was a slight whooshing sound and Annabeth turned around with a startled look on her face.

Behind her was an almost holographic image of a boy I recognized from many of her photos. His face was comically frozen in shock, just staring at Annabeth, surprised.

He reached forward and Annabeth let out a loud, "No, don't!"

Immediately he pulled his hand back and gave me a significant look. So it was a two-way… something?

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Yeah, you sure have good timing, Seaweed Brain."

"How was I supposed to know that you'd have someone else with you?" He demanded indignantly.

"Um, what is going on?" I asked Annabeth.

"Sorry," Percy apologized to Annabeth before she could even say anything to me.

She just shrugged. "Eh, I was telling her almost everything before this happened. Now I might as well tell her it all." She turned back to me, "It's called an Iris-Message."

I just nodded, in slight shock. What was this thing?

"So, what's up, Percy?" Annabeth asked.

"I can seriously say anything?" He shot back.

"We may need to stop and explain, but yeah, say whatever you need to."

"Alright. I was asking if you know Beckendorf's plans for the sabotage mission on the _Princess Andromeda_."

"Why are you asking _me_ that?" She asked incredulously. "Why would I know?"

"Because you always tell me that you know everything, Wise Girl," he laughed. "But really, I just was trying to see if you knew. He says he's coming to get me at any time and it was putting me on edge today."

"I'm pretty sure his main missions with you will be after camp, but before your birthday," Annabeth told him.

His face darkened slightly, but he shook himself out of it. "When are you heading over to camp this year?"

"As soon as possible," she replied immediately. "I'm on as many missions as you are, Percy. Chiron needs all of us there whenever he can. I'll probably leave right after school ends. You should do the same."

"My mom's making me take a few days off because I'll be crazy during the summer. Plus, this could be the last chance I get to relax." His face turned positively morbid.

"Perseus Jackson, don't go thinking like that. Okay? Positive thinking is what you need. Chill out, Seaweed Brain. I know you can do it." She said encouragingly.

"Thanks Annabeth," his face relaxed. "I needed that."

"Good," she said in a self-satisfied manner. "Now go jump in a lake or something and blow off some steam."

"Will do," he grinned. His face softened a bit as he added in a nervous manner, "Oh, and Annabeth, your hair looks good like that. You should do that more often."

Annabeth blushed slightly and you could tell Percy was blushing as well. "Thanks, Percy," Annabeth grinned at him. "I'd say the same, but yours looks as messy as always."

He laughed. "If you'd believe me, I did brush it today."

"Doubt it," Annabeth replied immediately.

His smile grew. "I've got to go, Wise Girl, but I'm glad I caught you."

"Nice talking to you," Annabeth grinned.

"Likewise. I'll talk to you later." Percy said. Annabeth replied in kind before swiping a hand through the message as it disappeared.

Ignoring the strange message I'd just heard and resolving to ask her about it later, I forced myself to act normal and raised my eyebrows at her. She stared back, unsuccessfully trying to hide her blush.

"I know another reason why you won't date anyone here…" She didn't say a word, so I continued. "You've already got your heart set on Percy Jackson."

"I do not!" She replied immediately, her blush betraying her.

"I'm on to you, sister," I laughed as she scowled and hid her face.

There was silence for a few moments but Annabeth had one more request as she looked up at me.

"Could you, maybe, um… well, teach me how to French braid my hair?"

**A/N: Sorry for the OC, but I always imagined that Annabeth would have at least one mortal friend back in San Francisco. And I can't resist having her find out in the end :D Thanks for reading!**


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